Fatal Scandal: Book Eight of the Fatal Series Page 18

  Oh, that smile did crazy things to his sexy face. She was powerless against that smile.

  He kept kissing her, subtle brushes of his lips over hers, teasing her with far less than he was capable of. “How’s it going?”

  “Fine.”

  “How do the knees feel?”

  “Not so good.”

  He took hold of her hands, which were also bruised and scraped. Then he pressed gentle kisses to each palm. “I called in to work. I’m staying home tomorrow to take care of you.”

  “That’s not necessary.”

  “It is to me.”

  “I have to work tomorrow.”

  “You’re going to call them and tell them you got hurt and that you need to take a sick day. And then you’re going to stay here with me, snuggled under this blanket my sister got me for Christmas. Then you’re going to let me make it up to you by torturing me with a full day of your favorite chick flicks.”

  “You have no idea what you’re in for. Do the words Legally Blonde mean anything at all to you?”

  “Not yet, but after tomorrow I’m sure I’ll be fully indoctrinated.”

  He put his arms around her and Shelby leaned her head against his chest. After all these years of navigating the dating game, you’d think she’d have a better handle on whether or not she should give him another chance. That he’d sincerely apologized and assured her that whatever he’d felt for Sam was in the past now went a long way toward soothing the ache inside her.

  But she’d have to talk to Sam and Nick about this situation at some point, and the thought of that made her feel sick. She loved them both. That they could’ve kept something like this from her surprised and hurt her.

  “Let’s go to bed, darlin’,” Avery said.

  When he slid his arms under her, intending to carry her upstairs to his bedroom, Shelby looped hers around his neck. She’d deal with her employers tomorrow.

  * * *

  Because the punch had broken bones in her face and around her eye, doctors decided to keep Elin in the hospital overnight. They gave her something to help her sleep and after she was settled in a room upstairs, she conked out. Freddie sat by her bedside, staring at her bruised and swollen face, seething over how it had come to be that way.

  That she had kept something so important from him for a month made him crazy. A guy had been hassling her, and she didn’t think he needed to know? Just when he thought he had this relationship thing figured out, something happened to remind him he was in way over his head with her and had been from the beginning.

  He could still remember the first time he’d laid eyes on her during the O’Connor investigation when he’d had to listen to her describe the kind of wild sex she’d had with the dead senator. He’d wanted her madly then and nothing had changed in the year since.

  It was exactly a year today since he went to find her at the gym, thinking of New Year’s resolutions that had nothing to do with working out and everything to do with getting the incredibly sexy Elin Svendsen into his life and his bed. No one had been more surprised than he was that she was equally attracted to him. This woman who could have anyone actually wanted him.

  A lifetime of abstinence had melted away in one life-changing night with her. He’d put everything on the line for her—his faith, his close relationship with the single mother who’d raised him and most important, his heart. It had been totally and absolutely worth it. Now they lived in an apartment they’d chosen together.

  Freddie loved coming home to her every night. He loved sleeping with her and weekends with her and making love with her. So it killed him to know she’d been troubled and bothered by someone and hadn’t told her boyfriend the cop. What did it mean for them that she could’ve kept something like that from him for so long?

  While she’d been getting a CT scan earlier, he’d called HQ to find out the status of the man who’d hit her. He was in the cooler awaiting arraignment in the morning. Freddie kept telling himself his place was at the hospital with her and that he shouldn’t leave her for any reason.

  But as her face continued to swell and the bruises turned a dark, vicious purple that matched the rage that had been festering inside him all night, he knew he couldn’t sit idly by and do nothing. Bending over the bed, he kissed her lips and waited to see if she would wake up. She never stirred.

  “I’ll be right back,” he whispered as he kissed her again. “I love you.” After leaving her room, he stopped at the nurses’ station, where he recognized several of the women who’d cared for Sam after a car accident last winter. “I have to step out for a short time. If my girlfriend, Elin Svendsen, wakes up, can you please tell her I’ll be right back?”

  “She shouldn’t wake up for a while,” one of them said. “We’ll keep an eye on her. Don’t worry.”

  “Thanks a lot. I’ll be right back.”

  “We’ll be here.”

  “Thanks.” He headed for the elevators and cut through the emergency department to get to his car. The temperature had dropped significantly during the hours he had spent inside, so he zipped his sweatshirt and ran for his car, anxious to take care of what needed taking care of and to return to Elin. He ought to call Sam, but she’d talk him out of what he was about to do. He couldn’t let that happen, he decided as he reached his car.

  The old Mustang fought back, and for a second he didn’t think it would start. But then it roared to life, backfiring as he punched the accelerator. A few minutes later, he pulled into the parking lot at HQ, parked in one of the spots reserved for visitors outside the main door and jogged inside. He nodded to the sergeant working the main desk and headed for the detectives’ pit, which was deserted.

  Since officers never took weapons into the cell block out of fear of being overpowered, Freddie locked his gun into his desk drawer and then took the stairs down two floors to the cells where people were held while awaiting arraignment.

  “Hey, Cruz.” Sergeant Delany was on duty. “You’re working late.”

  “Yeah, it’s one of those days.”

  “What can I do for you?”

  “The guy who was brought in from the 16th Street gym...”

  “Andre Elliott. He’s in number six.”

  Freddie looked the sergeant in the eye. “He put my girlfriend in the hospital. I’d like to have a chat with him.”

  After a long pause, during which Freddie never blinked, Delany said, “Go ahead.” He handed Freddie the key to the cell.

  “Thanks.”

  Delany nodded.

  Freddie unzipped his hoodie and removed it before using the key to open the cell door.

  Elliott was stretched out on the narrow cot, but sat up when Freddie came in. “Who are you?”

  Raising the hoodie so it covered his face, Freddie hung it over the camera that was trained on Elliott. He was tall and muscular with a complexion that indicated mixed-race lineage. He had a jagged scar on his bicep and sleeve tattoos. The knuckles on his right hand were bruised and swollen.

  “I’m Detective Cruz.” With his hands propped on his hips, his gold shield was visible to the other man.

  “What’d you want?”

  “The woman you hit at the gym today...”

  “What about her?”

  “She’s mine. She says you’ve been hassling her for a while now.”

  “She lies.”

  “No, she doesn’t.” Freddie took a step closer. Even though the guy was bigger than him and probably a whole lot meaner, Freddie was running on adrenaline and rage. He felt like he could kick the shit out of a raging bull if he had to. “Let me make myself really clear. Stay the fuck away from her, or you’ll be dealing with me.”

  “You think I’m afraid of you?”

  Freddie moved so fast Elliott never saw the knee to the groin coming. He cried ou
t in pain as he went down hard. Without giving him time to recover, Freddie punched him in the face, in the same area where Elin had been hit. Then he took a handful of Elliot’s hair and forced him to look up.

  Freddie brought his face down close to Elliott’s. “Stay the fuck away from her, or I swear to God I’ll fuck you up. Are we clear?”

  “I’ll have your badge for this.”

  “No, you won’t. We don’t think much of scumbags who hit women around here.” He pulled hard on the handful of hair. “Are we clear?”

  “Yeah.”

  “I didn’t hear you.”

  “We’re clear.”

  Freddie released his hold on Elliott’s hair and pushed him aside, leaving the man slumped on the floor, cupping his injured testicles. On the way out of the cell, Freddie walked past the camera before he pulled his hoodie off it.

  At the desk, he handed the key to the Delany.

  “Everything all right?” Delany asked.

  “It is now. If you could forget I stopped by, I’d consider it a personal favor.”

  “Never saw you here.”

  “Thanks, Sarge. Happy New Year.”

  “Same to you.”

  Freddie went up the stairs two at a time, propelled by the same surge of adrenaline that had brought him here. He retrieved his weapon from his desk and was on his way to the hospital five minutes later. Only when he was back in Elin’s room, his hand swelling from the impact to Elliott’s face, did the adrenaline leach from his body, leaving him cold and shaky as he leaned over the bed to kiss her forehead.

  Sagging into the chair next to the bed, he accepted that he’d risked his hard-won career by going to the jail. But he’d do it again to protect the woman he loved.

  * * *

  Sam and Nick waited an hour after Scotty went to bed before heading up to their loft on the third floor. On the way up, Nick went into Scotty’s room to check on him. He was asleep with most of his covers on the floor, so Nick covered him up and shut off the bedside lamp.

  When he got upstairs, Sam was on the phone, apparently with Gonzo.

  “We do have some threads, and we’re pulling them. Carlucci and Dominguez are working on Lori’s financials tonight, and we’re looking at the church she belonged to. They protest at veterans’ funerals, among other unsavory things. I’m going on TV with the chief tomorrow to talk about Springer, and I’ll take advantage of the opportunity to direct the heat off you.”

  Nick lit the beach-scented candles, turned on the music they’d loved on their honeymoon in Bora Bora and shut off the overhead lights. He sat next to her on the foot of their double lounge chair, put his arm around her and kissed her neck. He was fine with starting without her. She’d catch up. She always did.

  She leaned into him. “I know,” she said to Gonzo. “It totally sucks that people are saying that, but the people who matter know the truth. Just remember that. I’ll check in tomorrow, and I’ll keep you posted. Try to get some sleep.” She ended the call, then tossed her phone aside. “Sorry about that.”

  “No problem. I managed to entertain myself.”

  Laughing, Sam began tugging at his shirt.

  He put his arms behind him so he could watch her push up the shirt she’d bought him to replace the ratty one she hated. “What’s this about TV?”

  “Oh. You heard that, huh?”

  “Yep. What gives?”

  “So, things with the chief are bad. The press is doing a number on him. I suggested he go out there and tell his side of the story.” When Nick pulled the T-shirt over his head, she trailed her finger from his neck to the waistband of his jeans, sending all the blood in his body to his cock, which surged against his zipper.

  “How’d you get roped into it?”

  Sam bent to kiss the same path. “I might’ve offered to use my, you know...” She waved her hand. “What do you call it?”

  “Your stature as the wife of the vice president of the United States?”

  “Yeah, that.”

  Laughing, Nick fell back on the bed. “You are so funny, you know that?”

  “How am I funny?”

  “You don’t even know how to play the game, do you?”

  “What game?”

  “The fame game. You’re famous, Samantha. Everyone in this country knows who you are now. Go out there and use that to square things away for your chief.”

  “Use it.” She bit her lip the way she did when she was thinking. “Isn’t that kind of...unethical?”

  “Not at all. It would be unethical if you asked me to get involved behind the scenes to make it go away. If you go on TV and take advantage of the interest in us to change the conversation then that’s not at all unethical.”

  “It feels icky.”

  “Welcome to politics, babe.”

  She unbuttoned and unzipped his jeans. “I don’t want to talk about politics.”

  Twirling a lock of her hair around his finger, he said, “What do you want to talk about?”

  “I want to talk about how sexy my husband, the vice president, is and how every woman in America would like to be me right now.”

  “Sure, they would.”

  “Speaking of not knowing how to play the game.”

  “I don’t want to play this particular game with anyone other than my beautiful wife.”

  “Spoken like a true politician.”

  “Or a smart husband.”

  “That too,” Sam said with a laugh. She kissed a path from his belly to his chest, ending at his lips.

  He wrapped his arms around her to keep her there, losing himself to her kiss and the way she made him feel. Her mouth opened and her tongue tangled with his. God, he could kiss her forever and never get tired of it. As he kissed her, he pulled at her clothes impatiently, breaking the kiss only to tug her top over her head. The scent of lavender and vanilla filled his senses and made him greedy for more of her.

  Nick released the clasp on her bra and pushed the straps down, gasping at the exquisite feel of her breasts pressed against his chest. That was one of his top five favorite things in life. As he pushed her jeans down, he uncovered one of his other top five favorite things—her gorgeous ass. Truth be told, he loved every incredible inch of her, and the way she responded to him was a constant reminder of how damn lucky he was that she loved him.

  And then she broke the kiss and reminded him all over again why he was so lucky. She pushed him onto his back and kissed a path straight down the front of him.

  He drew in a sharp breath when she took him into her mouth, sucking hard enough to make him see stars. Goddamn, she was good at that. “Samantha.”

  “Hmm?” She knew the vibration of her lips against his shaft made him crazy.

  “You’re going to end this before we get started.”

  “Let me have my fun.”

  Her idea of fun was his idea of heaven. He gathered her hair so he could watch, which was almost as sexy as what she was doing with her lips and tongue. Then she took him into her throat and nearly finished him off with the tight squeeze. “Sam.”

  She released him slowly, taking her time and circling her tongue over the head.

  He reached for her and pulled her up to him, their mouths coming together in a clash of tongues and teeth and lips. He couldn’t wait one more second to be inside her, so he turned them and plunged into her. Surrounded by her heat, her scent, her arms wrapped around his neck and her legs around his hips, Nick took a moment to enjoy the sheer bliss he found with her every damn time.

  Then she began to move beneath him, needing more. He raised his head to look down at her swollen lips, the clear blue eyes that looked up at him with love and desire and the hint of vulnerability that she saved only for him. She let herself go with him, and he loved that she gave him t
hat.

  “What’s wrong?” she asked after a long moment of quiet during which he pressed deeper into her, but made no move to speed things up.

  “Not one damn thing is wrong.” He framed her face with his hands and kissed her softly. His Samantha liked it hard and fast, but tonight he wanted to take his time. He wanted to savor her. He started with her neck, kissing and nibbling while she squirmed beneath him, trying to break his control.

  Cupping her breasts, he sucked on her left nipple, drawing it into his mouth and running his tongue over the tip.

  She grabbed a fistful of his hair and tugged as she tightened her legs around his hips. Her internal muscles rippled and squeezed his cock, testing his resolve to go slow.

  “I know what you’re doing,” he said.

  “What am I doing?”

  “You’re trying to take control.”

  “I’m trying to get you to move.”

  “I will. When I’m good and ready to.” He laughed at the frustrated face she made at him. “You may be the boss at work, but here,” he said, knowing he’d probably make her mad, “I’m the boss.”

  “Says who?”

  “Says me.”

  “I never agreed to that.”

  He withdrew from her so quickly, she gasped.

  “What the hell?”

  “Turn over. I want you on all fours, head down.”

  “Nick.”

  “Do it, Samantha.” He got up from the lounge. “You’re not in charge right now.”

  Nick caught the glare she directed his way, but she did as he told her to do. Taking direction was a challenge for his wife, but he was determined to do this his way. He crossed the room to get what he needed and returned to the lounge and the incredible sight of his wife’s delicious ass raised in the air.

  “Spread your legs some more.”

  Hesitantly, or so it seemed to him, she did as he asked.

  “What’re you doing?” she asked.

  “No talking.”

  Her deep sigh was so filled with annoyance that he had to hold back a laugh. She was adorable and he loved her madly, even when she was willful and determined to get her way all the time, even in bed.